Second verse, same as the first

Updated update.

We're off to celebrate The Fourth of July but real quickly I wanted to show you what I did today. (Since I had a fire lit under me.) My previous post showed a book shelf that I was feeling 'stuck' on. Well, i unstuck myself.

Before and after. The after photos were taken inside since it was close to 90° outside.

The colors are more accurate here.

I went way more rustic on the redo.

The color on the right has more depth.

Ahhhhh. This is more my style. Layers of color and wax.

 

So, busy busy me!

Linked to:
miss mustard seed
french country cottage
nifty thrifty things
flamingo toes
coastal charm
shabby nest
the dedicated house
funky junk interiors
be different act normal

Hello Blogger, my old friend.......

Where the heck have I been? It's been a month! I'll tell you, after the disclaimer:

I've started a few posts and they are laying dormant in draft form, waiting for me to get a grip and finish them already. sheesh

There's a post about junking with my tall-like-Gwyneth-Paltrow (in her own mind) friend who gets all the good stuff 'cuz she's short and fast.

And a post about a road trip that well, you'll see when I finish the post.

And a post about how crazy my treatment has become and how I need to paint while in infusion or I'll never catch up.

And I've been fighting the good fight against some paint that refuses to do as I demand.

Okay, I'll show you that. Maybe you'll roll your eyes and say "Oh get over it. You can fix that!" And I'll say, "Yeah, well. It's the treatment. Who knew it would mess up my eye sight?" cripes all ready

So here's my new nemesis, a cute french-style book shelf that is now baby blue and baby pink and dirt.

 Bright pink. Blue baby blue.

Dark wax = dirt. sigh

Longggg story about the blotchy side. It's sad and you'll cry.

Let's go outside and see what natural light does.

Nothing.

Blotch blotch dirt. Seriously, the reason this happened is saaad.

 Oh look. A dirty foot.

And blue. And pink.

And dirt.

I will prevail! After I've had a nap. And if I can catch my breath.

 Painted pole in Notre Dame, Paris

Okay, so this was my inspiration and I'm thinking I'll go back and add Arles (Annie Sloan) to the mix. I'll layer Arles and Old White with Duck Egg and Antoinette and I think that should about do it.

After my nap, like I said earlier.
And if they'll let me paint in the infusion room.

Sharing with:
miss mustard seed

Primitive tables - as in 'Who the heck would buy one of those?'

I bought them. That's who. 

And, as is my lot in life, I saw all the damage when I got home. Aw, cripes, here we go again. Get out the wood putty, get out the clamps. Find the number 40 sand paper. Then I thought, let's forget all that. Let's just roll with it this one time.

So, here we have 2 chippy tables that I really want to keep (as always) and a chippy table from last summer that I did keep. There are no 'before' photos because I jumped right in and started painting and never thought about it. I've been doing that a lot lately - always in a hurry because of spending 3 days in Portland each week.

The tables and the doors are so vintage that I decided to have some fun and make the images look old as well.

The little cabinet came from a store on Hawthorne in Portland. If you are driving up Hawthorne and see a store with what looks to be all their inventory out on the sidewalk, stop and go in. It's a seriously fun, dark, cramped store that you have to dig around in or you'll miss treasures.

Remember the decluttering photo (here) that showed 5 doors that I had dragged out of the house? Four from the bedroom and one from the hall. Well, guess what? I still had these three doors in my work room. And there's another door in the dining room. Then there are the doors in ..... Bwah ha ha ha. You'll never find them all.

  The red is Primer Red from Annie Sloane.

The small frame on the left is actually the chair back I saved from the trash in southern France.

The primitive kitchen table got the last laugh. When I went to move it, it broke. Somewhere. The legs are now wonky so I'll have to get the glue and clamps after all.

I love my rabbit casserole.
It came from the same estate sale as my pretty tower. My kitchen has slowly been evolving. The walls remain a light taupe but the accessories are changing from bright colors to plain white. I didn't plan it, it just happened organically. I guess I want a soothing atmosphere - which is all part of the extreme decluttering.

It took three coats of Miss Mustard Seed Ironstone to get this chippy goodness. I left it overnight and in the morning I had beautiful cracks and chips.

Here's the chair back before,

 and after. Jury's still out on the 'after.'

On July 1st I'll be moving into a smaller booth at Collector's Market. My old booth was 10 feet and the new one is 6 feet. I feel I won't be so stressed trying to keep up on a booth if it's smaller. It will require less inventory and I think it will be more fun to style. You'll find these tables there, ready for a new home.

I'm keeping the rabbit.

Linking to:
be different act normal
Liz marie blog
its overflowing
my uncommon slice of suburbia
miss mustard seed
nifty thrifty things

Back to basics

Life has gotten soooo complicated. I've been unable to concentrate because of feeling overwhelmed. Part of it is because the clinical trial people decided I wasn't quite done. I have to go to Portland 5 more times, and get this: 4 times are just for blood draws. Yep. I have to drive for 10 hours to have a 5 minute blood draw. There's no way around it - it's a closed test so no one in Medford can do the lab work.

And get this, I had to laugh, they want me to do the 24 hour urine test on the way up there on Sunday. Bwah ha ha ha ha. No problem, I figured out what I did wrong. I'm going to Burger King this time.

So, to sooth my troubled mind, I painted a table the old fashioned way: milk paint and wax. Simple.

later

later

much later

My internet went down when I needed to straighten out a problem with my prescriptions. As well as write this post. I'm sitting in a coffee shop right now, how's that for dedication?

I used wax as a resist, letting the natural wood show.

I mixed the teal color from a CC Caldwell blue, some green and some white. (Sorry I can't remember the names, and I'm 22 miles from home so I can't go take a quick look.) I splashed the paint on leaving quite a bit of wood. I sanded that when dry and splashed on another coat. I added more white to my teal and some water and did a wash over the whole table, randomly wiping it off as I went.

 It feels like forever ago that I did an inkjet transfer. The Graphics Fairy came through again!

 Now the hard part. 

Measure, weigh and list it on etsy.

Linking to:
miss mustard seed
funky junk interiors
be different act normal
liz marie blog 
its overflowing
my uncommon slice of suburbia
nifty thrifty things
shabby art boutique

and now, the continuing saga

I was going to put on my Sorting Hat and go outside to stare blankly at furniture but then I thought I'd share more joy of cancer treatment instead. Right? You can't have too much cancer treatment. Apparently.

My dark humor is showing.

But first, I went to a huge Estate Sale on Saturday. I was lugging a table around when I ran into a friend who looked pointedly at the table and said "I read your blog this morning." We both burst out laughing until tears came because the post she was referring to was the one were I did Extreme Decluttering and pulled all my extra furniture outside. Busted. Did I get the table? No.

But I bought some really old folding chairs. heh heh heh

Now my little story about going for treatment:

Wonky foot and all, I'm going outside to stare at furniture now. Enjoy your holiday!

Extreme decluttering

So I'm a bit redundant, I can't help it. I WANT to declutter but I couldn't bear to give up anything.

So today I got serious. Really serious. I started taking things out of the house with the idea of moving things back in, maybe in a new spot, maybe where they were. And anything left outside would be sold or stored down in the barn.

When I started pulling things out I had a real eye-opener about how much stuff I have.

Take a look. The two pictures below are of the things I dragged out from the bedroom.

 I can say without a doubt that five doors are sooooo not going back in.

Now we move to the livingroom.

Decisions will need to be made here. There's a church pew hidden behind stuff on the left that I would like to move inside. I'll have to walk around with a measuring tape.

Now the dining room.

It doesn't look like a lot but it was a mess. The door wasn't in a happy place. I love the door and it's staying but I'll have to drag it from room to room to find a spot.

I'll have to do a Part Two where I show what didn't get back into the house.

And right now I need to get out there and start dragging because it looks like rain. Figures!

Sharing with
coastal charm
be different act normal

My junking partner

Anyone who has followed my blog for any length of time has read about my in-laws, Mr. Really Bad and Mrs. Infinitely Patient (that just popped into my mind, hope she likes it). Whenever they visit Pat and I try to head out to the sales, leaving our bored-by-that spouses behind. I posted some time ago about a rare find Mr. Really Bad happened on out here in rural Oregon. You can read it here.

Recently there was an article about my father-in-law and Scottish Sword and Shield in their local paper. I'd say the writer captured him perfectly. Read on .......

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Federal Way highlanders | local business celebrates traditional Scottish weaponry

Pat Tougher, Scottish Sword and Shield

Sitting in the living room beneath a mantle of swords, shields, and a bust of Thor, you get a sense that medieval Scottish weaponry is more than a career for Pat and Rosalie Tougher - it is an obsession.
"My dad used to tell me I was born in another time because of my fascination with edged weapons," said Pat Tougher, whose family name is pronounced like the "ch" in Loch Ness. Tougher's hands are clothed in scars, the evidence of his weaponry hobby. "I'm a right monster, a lot of people will tell you that," said Pat Tougher. "These are my medals."

But despite his best attempts to come off as an old grizzled curmudgeon, as soon as he refers to his wife Rosalie as "the boss," the act is moot.

Pat Tougher and his wife started their Federal Way business Scottish Sword and Shield in 1989, though he started collecting the weaponry in 1957. "I wasn't a collector, I was a hoarder," said Pat Tougher as he walks into a 10 by 10 room, called the sword room, without an inch of wall space. "When I was younger, I thought there was never enough, but you get older and realize that you can never have it all."

Most of the business that the Tougher's do is at Scottish Highland Games, the biggest of which in the state takes place in Enumclaw each July. At these gatherings, people mostly buy the cheaper weapons, but the internet has provided a medium for the Scottish Sword and Shield to connect with high rollers willing to pay a little more for authenticity. "If you Google antique Scottish swords, I'm the one who comes up," said Pat Tougher. In fact, last year the business sent a Targe (traditional shield) all the way to an Australian collector.

Pat Toughter used to craft most of the weaponry himself but has slowed down. He is now 81.
"We couldn't do it without the kids," he said, referring to setting up the collection of swords at the festivals. By 2007, the Scottish Sword and Shield was making half as much money as they made in the 90s.

However, after walking past wedding pictures in which every Tougher man is wearing traditional highlander attire, you get the sense that the business is secondary to the family that surrounds it.

Aside from two pieces that will be passed down within the Tougher family, everything in the sword room is for sale. When asked what piece is his favorite, Pat Tougher smiles.
"She's sitting in the other room reading a book."
For more information about Scottish Sword and Shield, call 253-661-6193 or visit www.scottishsword.com.

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We're going to the annual Grant's Pass Antique Street Fair tomorrow. We don't know if our spouses will be joining us. :-)